To speak at graduation as a student commencement speaker is to speak to the multitudes of experiences that shape and define the Campus community.
For Spring 2026 graduation, Campus AABA students Deva Ramireddy and Megan Eger were selected to give addresses. With two incredibly different personal journeys, both spoke to the innate qualities of a Campus student — dedication, perseverance, ambition — and to the possibilities that the Campus experience unlocks.
The path is never a straight line
Megan would describe her life before Campus with one word: stagnant. She’d tried twice already to earn her associate’s degree, but both times, life made finishing feel out of reach. “The programs that I joined at the other two colleges just weren’t fitting with my schedule,” she said. “I didn’t feel a sense of community where I was.” As time went on, her motivation slowed, and she found herself losing touch with the ambition she’d carried for years: to get her degree.
Deva, too, saw life change course unexpectedly, though due to entirely different circumstances. While studying abroad in Costa Rica, an accidental slip on a wet trail sent him off a cliff. Landing on glass and rock, he suffered a severed femoral artery. What followed was a four-hour ambulance ride, emergency surgery, months of hospitalization, and a paralyzed right leg. In an instant, his life had shifted course completely. “I was probably at one of the lowest points in life,” he said, “realizing I’m probably not gonna get my leg back.”
Finding Campus
It was this absolute low that led Deva to the simple calculus that brought him to Campus. Lying in a hospital bed, he thought: “I cannot walk. I cannot drive. I cannot do most things. But I can probably take a class.” He came across Campus, and after a few conversations with an admissions counselor, determined that yes, this could work. He enrolled in Spring 2023 from that very hospital bed.
For Megan, the turning point came while driving past a university during graduation season. She saw students in caps and gowns, celebrating, and something shifted. “I slowed down my car and something inside me, some door that I had bolted shut long ago, swung wide open,” she said at commencement. “I want what lives underneath it all. I want to know what it feels like to refuse to give up on yourself and to come out on the other side winning.” By then, she’d already heard from Campus. She decided to say yes.
Both arrived to Campus skeptical that this time would be any different. Both found something they hadn’t expected. Accountability, for one: live classes, cameras on, a success coach pushing them towards every goal they’d set. “Campus met me where I needed to be met as a student," said Megan. “That was extremely important for my journey.”
Megan graduated with a 4.0, on the honors list all eight quarters. Deva navigated ten surgeries, launched the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Society, and finished his degree ahead of schedule.
What they’re taking with them
Standing behind the podium, both Megan and Deva spoke to not only their own accomplishments, but also what their journeys meant for everyone in the room.
“Beginning again is not the same as beginning,” said Megan. “Beginning again is an act of courage. It means you know exactly how hard this is. You've already felt the weight of it, and you've decided to lift it anyway.”
“There is no secret to finishing something hard,” said Deva. “You just keep going. You do the next thing. You take the next step, even when it is small.”
Both are now stepping into what comes next with that same spirit. Megan will take a gap year before transferring to Rollins College, building out her event planning business in the meantime. Deva is running Styles Go, a mobile barber platform he co-founded.
Where they’re going looks nothing alike. But how they got there is more similar than it might seem.
As Megan put it: “The timeline you thought you had to follow was never the only path forward. The distance between where you are and where you want to be is often just the decision to try again. Not perfectly, not fearlessly. Just honestly.”
Watch the full episode here.
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